Touring Europe ?

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stevedood
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Touring Europe ?

Post by stevedood » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:02 pm

I'm planning on heading over to Europe for a month this summer to do some shows and had a few questions:

1) I've heard there is a specific permit or visa required to perform music in the EU...does anybody have detailed info on what is required?

2)Electronics - Power conversion... I have a few synths that have low voltage DC or AC power supplies and a couple of thing's that take 120 VAC. I don't think it all draws that much current and I'm thinking a basic converter on the end of my power strip would work but I'm not sure. Any advice appreciated on this one.

3)Insurance - not sure if my renter's insurance policy covers international travel and am looking into it. Otherwise, recommendations for short-term policies recommended.

4) Booking agents (EU) - any recommendations on venues or agents appreciated (electronic music), hoping to do mostly France but willing to go up to Germany since they love electro up there. My latest sounds can be heard here:
http://soundcloud.com/stevedood

Any other advice appreciated!
thanks,

Steve

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Z-Plane
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Post by Z-Plane » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:46 pm

1) I've heard there is a specific permit or visa required to perform music in the EU...does anybody have detailed info on what is required?
If you are bringing a load of flightcased kit that says "musician on tour getting paid cash money" then yes. If its just a laptop and controllers then you are a tourist and visiting friends, whose contact details you will have handy and nowhere on your person will there be any printed text connecting you to the gigs.
I have a few synths that have low voltage DC or AC power supplies and a couple of thing's that take 120 VAC. I don't think it all draws that much current and I'm thinking a basic converter on the end of my power strip would work but I'm not sure. Any advice appreciated on this one.
A step-up will work fine, check your PSUs to see if they accept 240v anyway, many do but also check the plugs and sockets of each country first. You want to avoid a wall-wart converter hanging on the end of a travelplug that needs support just to stay connected.

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Post by Gentleman Jim » Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:17 pm

Also, while I don't know which direction to send you as far as an agent is concerned, I would say that you're running late already. Back in the stone ages when I was touring, summer tours used to book earlier in Europe due to the fact that many bands built their tours around the multitude of one-off festivals. I can't imagine it's much different now.

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Post by stevedood » Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:23 pm

I plan on traveling with a large amount of electronic music equipment and CD's to sell so I need to follow the rules on this one. I'm looking for first-hand advice from anyone who has obtained this permit/visa and what was entailed.

Thanks!

Steve

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Post by roscoenyc » Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:23 pm

stevedood wrote:I plan on traveling with a large amount of electronic music equipment and CD's to sell so I need to follow the rules on this one. I'm looking for first-hand advice from anyone who has obtained this permit/visa and what was entailed.

Thanks!

Steve
Flying?
Baggage over charges have gotten REALLY INSANE.
Baggage allowance for flights within the EU is much less than the
weight allowance for an overseas flight.

I'd also like to add a +1 on the "you are already late" thing too.

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Post by stevedood » Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:43 pm

The luggage surcharges look to be manageable for the airlines I'm flying - +$50 for overweight and +$50 for oversize, so a +$100 charge each way to have my gear in the plane is not a big deal and it's still cheaper than freight-forwarding the equipment at this point in time.

...and while I suppose it's abit late to start booking late-summer shows in Europe, I'm not too worried at the moment....just looking for advice from people who have done it.

thanks,

steve

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Post by roscoenyc » Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:30 pm

I do it regularly. Countless overseas tours in the last 25 plus years.

What I was trying to explain is the baggage allowence/charges for your US to EU flights are very different than the Internal EU flights (like London to Copenhagen for instance).

The discount carriers like Orange Jet and Ryan Air really, really pile on the extra bag/weight charges. I've seen guys get charged over 300 British pounds for a bag of cymbals (that would have been chucked if they weren't vintage). Very inflexible.

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Post by kingtoad » Fri Mar 26, 2010 7:02 pm

Yeah, seriously, fuck Ryan Air. I think they charge something stupid for every kilo you go over the limit, not a one off charge to upgrade. They are a horrible, horrible company and you should avoid them if possible.

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Post by Gentleman Jim » Sat Mar 27, 2010 11:40 am

stevedood wrote:The luggage surcharges look to be manageable for the airlines I'm flying - +$50 for overweight and +$50 for oversize, so a +$100 charge each way to have my gear in the plane is not a big deal and it's still cheaper than freight-forwarding the equipment at this point in time.
Respectfully, I think those numbers should be examined very closely. In 1989 ( :shock: ) I bought an original Orange 4x12 for super cheap while on tour in Germany. I had been told by the booking agent/tour manager that other bands from the US flew Marshall cabs both ways all the time at little or no cost. When the end of the tour came, I was told by the airline that the Orange cab was 5cm too tall, 5cm too wide, 3cm too deep, and something like 10 kilos overweight. The total cost to fly it home would have been the equivalent of $900.

I can't imagine that the prices have gotten cheaper and the policies more liberal since 1989.

I imagine it kind of sucks that you originally posted hoping to get answers to a number of specific questions, but instead you've unleashed a swarm of nattering nabobs of negativism. I hope that you can see that we're replying so you can avoid hassles down the line. This tour absolutely can happen, and it might be able to happen successfully. But some of us who have done this sort of thing previously would feel remiss if we didn't pass on hard-earned lessons from our experiences. I sincerely want you to take that to heart.

Good luck, and please tell us how the tour turns out. You'll have a blast, even if you're miserable the whole time. Touring is weird like that.

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Post by stevedood » Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:45 pm

All the advice is appreciated and thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion. I'm going to be particularly careful about these airline baggage costs based on what everyone has said and now I'm curious if the same sort of caution applies when traveling by train? I can't recall there being luggage charges for the trains but it's been several years since I've traveled by train in Europe and now I'm wondering about that too.

In any event, this trip is partly a tour and partly a vacation, and so I'm bringing my production equipment abroad to compose & record in situ and also to do a few shows at galleries and discotheques. I don't have big record label planning this for me and so I'm using the resources of friends in Paris & Toulouse to book shows. Ibiza, on the other hand, is foreign territory and I'm pretty much gonna hitch a ride there from Monaco on some big fancy yacht ;)

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Post by kingtoad » Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:04 pm

There shouldn't be any luggage charges on trains/ One other thing to pay attention to when booking flights, is that sometimes there is a space to indicate that your luggage is a musical instrument. If this is there then tick it - I've made the mistake of not doing it in the past and you will lose a lot of money if you don't.

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Post by stevedood » Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:05 pm

I found this bit of info to be quite helpful:
http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

...now I need to check the power input requirements for my Moog and my x0xb0x and see how they'll cope with the higher voltage and 50 Hz....I think my MPC and the rest of my stuff should be OK.

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Post by Gentleman Jim » Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:10 pm

stevedood wrote:I found this bit of info to be quite helpful:
http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

...now I need to check the power input requirements for my Moog and my x0xb0x and see how they'll cope with the higher voltage and 50 Hz....I think my MPC and the rest of my stuff should be OK.
Ohhh! I totally forgot about the 50 Hz thing. I toured with a band who used an Akai S1000, and the 50Hz thing screwed with them big time. The keyboard player had to adjust all the samples, because the 50 Hz power ran the samples slower. You might want to look around at websites/messageboards for electronic music for tips.

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Post by stevedood » Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:23 pm

Fortunately my sampler can handle the 240 VAC / 50 Hz, it's the analog synths I'm more wondering about. I'll have to go through a step-down transformer to get the voltage correct for their various wall warts (9 VAC, and 24 VAC) and then see how the 50 Hz frequency affects the oscillators - if at all. I thought about sourcing separate EU power supplies for each synth and it's not entirely feasible w/o circuit mods.
Fortunately we've got this fancy power unit at work that can give me 240 VAC/50 Hz to test things out before I go. Need to keep the weight of the step-down transformer as low as possible as well~ and for ease of use, everything on one plug. This is gonna take a little planning but seems mangeable :)

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Post by Dr Rubberfunk » Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:54 am

Definitely look at using trains, especially in Germany - ?ber efficient, and reasonably priced. Shame the same doesn't quite apply in the UK :)

Also, car hire might be an idea - distances are probably not as great as you'd think, autobahns / motorways are fast, but toll charges can add up in Germany / France (only a couple of tolls on m'ways in UK) and petrol won't be anywhere as cheap as the US. (Around 3 times as expensive in the UK atm I think!)

I've only really been in and out of (mainland) Europe on planes with a bag of records, but imho the hold baggage allowance on most airlines is around 20kg. A laptop sized bag is all you're allowed as hand luggage most of the time, although this can be flexible / abused by others, depending on your situation :)
Avoid Ryanair as others have mentioned. Lufthansa are decent, although their budget arm - GermanWings is on a par with Ryanair ... Easyjet aren't so bad if you stick to the baggage rules, and bring a packed lunch :)

If you're gonna get to France, I'd say it'd be worth hoping over to London (catch the Eurostar from Paris, or get up to Calais on the north coast and get a on a ferry across to Dover) and see if you can pick up a club gig or two. Plus you might get a decent deal on a flight down to Ibiza, or hookup with some folks going - there's a ton of DJs & acts (and clubbers) heading there from the UK all summer ...

Regarding visas - the Musician's Union here in the UK are very helpful on such matters, are you a member of the AFM or similar? Maybe give them a call to pick their brains on specifics, but if you get shows organised before travelling, the local promoter should be sorting such things out really.

You might think about hiring or borrowing step-down transformers and such until you're over here? One set for France, one for Spain/Ibiza etc - and bear in mind (from memory) France, Germany and Spain all have slightly different mains socket designs - and they're all different to the UK with our massive 3 pin affairs :)
In fact here's more information about mains plugs than you could ever need
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

Anyway - hope that's of some use, and hope the trip proves to be a fruitful one!

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